Tassaduq Rashid
Maqsood Ahmad Wani walks through his field in Baramulla, tracing his fingers over velvety crimson blooms. The flower, with its striking resemblance to a rooster’s comb, is Celosia cristata, known locally as “Mawal”. For decades, it had all but disappeared from the Valley’s agricultural landscape. Today, it is blooming again.
“My grandmother used to grow mawal in our kitchen garden,” Wani recalls. “She would dry the flowers, soak them in water, and extract a vibrant red colour to add to rogan josh. But over time, people shifted to synthetic dyes. The flower was forgotten.”
Mawal’s decline was slow but steady. As synthetic food colouring became cheap and easily available, the traditional process of drying and extracting colour from the cockscomb flower began to seem tedious. By the early 2000s, only a handful of elders in remote villages cultivated it, often for personal use. The knowledge of its cultivation and use risked being lost forever.
In Kashmiri cuisine, few dishes are as iconic as rogan josh, a slow-cooked lamb curry known for its deep red hue and aromatic spices. That signature colour did not come from tomatoes or Kashmiri chillies alone. It was the mawal flower that gave the dish its visual richness, a natural dye that also added a subtle earthy flavour.
“Authentic rogan josh is incomplete without mawal,” says Tariq Ahmed, a Bandipora-based chef specializing in traditional Wazwan. “The synthetic alternatives give colour but lack soul. Mawal connects the dish to our soil, our seasons, and our history.”
Beyond rogan josh, mawal was also used in other Wazwan delicacies like “yakhni” and “methi maaz”. Its use was not limited to food, the flower was also part of local medicinal practices, believed to have anti-inflammatory properties, and used in natural dyeing of fabrics.
The turnaround began around 2018, when the Jammu & Kashmir Department of Agriculture launched integrated farming schemes to promote niche, high-value crops. Among them was the cockscomb flower. The department began distributing saplings and providing technical guidance to farmers like Wani, encouraging them to trial mawal as a cash crop.
“We recognized that mawal was not just a flower, it was a piece of our heritage,” says, an agricultural official involved in the initiative. “We worked with farmers to teach them modern cultivation techniques while preserving traditional knowledge.”
The flower proved surprisingly easy to grow. It required minimal pesticides, thrived in the Valley’s temperate climate, and could be harvested multiple times between June and September. Once dried, the flowers could be stored for months without losing their colour potency.
The real breakthrough came in 2023, when Kashmir exported its first consignment of dried mawal, 120 kg to the United States. The shipment was facilitated by a local agri-export startup in collaboration with the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA).
The export milestone caught the attention of farmers across the Valley. Suddenly, mawal was not just a cultural artifact but a commercially viable product.
For Maqsood Ahmad Wani, mawal has become a source of pride and profit. On his half acre plot, he now dedicates nearly half his land to the flower. “It’s less labour-intensive than rice or maize,” he says, “and the returns are better.”
A kilogram of dried mawal sells for Rs 800–1,200 in local markets, and even higher for export-quality produce. In a good season, Wani can earn up to Rs 80,000 from mawal alone, a good supplement to his family’s income.
He is not alone. In districts like Pulwama, Budgam, and Anantnag, hundreds of small and marginal farmers including women’s self-help groups have taken up mawal cultivation. For many, it is a return to roots. For others, it is a pragmatic choice in a region where climate change and market fluctuations have made traditional farming increasingly uncertain.
Botanists and nutritionists are now taking a closer look at the cockscomb flower. Studies have shown that mawal is rich in betalains, natural pigments with antioxidant properties, making it not just a colouring agent but also a functional food.
The revival of Mawal also aligns with sustainable farming goals as it requires very little water compared to paddy, does not need chemical fertilisers, and attracts pollinators like bees and butterflies, supporting local biodiversity.
